Aasimar
Aasimar are a race of humanoids decedent from Solars. Seventeen Solars moved into the Material Plane and established residence on the western coast, founding the country of Luce Benedetta. Solars are not able to have children with each other, but can procreate with mortal humanoids. Each Solar is basically the head of their own bloodline of decedents. It is heavily frowned upon for aasimar to marry each other (since it mixes lines and makes it less clear who the child is claim to). As such, Luce Benedetta is a very racially diverse place. There are currently twelve Solar that oversee Luce Benedetta. Luce Benedetta has several large, sprawling villas along the coastline and inland on the plains and in the great forests. Each Solar has a central home where their decedents live in an expanding and often convolutely connected manor. Aasimar that are a first generation direct child of an aasimar almost always live in their parent-Solar's manor, and subsequent generations do as well. However, after around a fifth generation separation from the parent-Solar, those children are usually less directly involved in the business of the parent-Solar and frequently live in the farther out reaches of the manor, sometimes in separate apartment manors even. Family is a central importance is aasimar society, and usually your spouse (who is not an aasimar) moves in with you and your family. For this reason, there are not many small towns in Luce Benedetta. Each aasimar is born under Divine Law and has a Fate transcribed on their soul. This is what gives aasimar their unique connection to divinity. Divine Law establishes that, should an individual refuse to fulfill their Fate, they fall, losing that connection to divinity. They also fall if they turn evil; performing an evil deed (such as murder, rape, torture, etc). When an aasimar falls, they go through a painful transformation. A standard aasimar is a beautiful person with golden lines etched across their skin; these lines are difficult to fully hide and are how people can easily identify an aasimar from a distance. Aasimar also are easy to identify by their language. Celestial is a tonal language that conveys both factual statements with the word and emotional state with the musical tone and tempo of the sentence. When an aasimar falls, these lines char and turn ashen and the glow in their skin dies away; their lustrous hair turns black and the divine touch is removed from their soul. Additionally, the celestial language becomes unpleasant for them both to hear and to speak; there is a broken aspect in their perception where the language becomes discordant to their ears and their vocal cords are no longer able to produce the melody of their native tongue. does mean it is difficult for non-aasimar to speak Celestial, but aasimar are generally very encouraging to anyone who is trying. However, as such, Common is spoken throughout Luce Benedetta as well. Also, every aasimar has an angelic guide, a companion that is with them constantly, who is gone from them when they fall. A fallen aasimar goes from always having a companion to listen to them, comfort them, and champion them, to a sudden silence and solitude, the magnitude of which is something no other race of people can possibly known, and which is something many aasimar are terrified of having happen to them. Because these are uniquely painful experiences, fallen aasimar seem to either congregate with each other because only other fallen know what this pain is like, or they avoid each other because it reminds them of this pain. Lastly, upon death, a fallen aasimar's soul is not claimed by the Solars and carried to Mount Celestia like every other aasimar's soul is; they are forsaken and refused entry to heaven/paradise. This means that many fallen aasimar do not know what will become of their soul when they die (unless they fell because they were making a pact or devotion to some other god or power, in which case their soul will probably be claimed by that god or power). An aasimar's fate is not known to them or to their parent-Solar, but they are born under star-signs to give them a hint of the nature of their fate. There are individuals that practice reading a person's Fate in the lines on their body. Some claim this has helped them know their Fate better and some claim this was completely useless and wrong. (Think of it maybe as palm reading.) A person does not know their Fate until they are in the moment to fulfill it. To help them know this moment, every aasimar has an angelic guide which only they can see and interact with. This angelic guide is with them from the moment they are born until they die or they fall. The angelic guide does not know the exact details of their aasimar's fate, but they are directly connected to the divine touch on the aasimar's soul and have a better ability to guide the person towards fulfilling their fate. In a moment when an aasimar is about to break their Fate, sudden clarity hits the angelic guide and they can directly advise against specific actions that an aasimar is about to do. Also for moments when an aasimar is about to do something evil. In this way, every aasimar has the chance to know without any doubt that they are about to fall and can do something different to avoid it. Of course, these are usually highly emotional situations and the aasimar may not heed warning in the moment, and may find themselves regretting that later. Since it is difficult to hide their aasimar lines, a fallen aasimar is easily identified in general society. At a glance, a fallen aasimar is considered a potential threat to either general stability (as they have chosen to break divine law) or to the health and wellbeing of those around them. As such, fallen aasimar usually, but not always, flee to a different place in the world. While the sudden fallen state of someone is certainly something that can be known easily, it is usually not considered a point of polite conversation or discussion; it is looked upon with sorrow at best and with fear at worst. Condolences will be offered to the fallen's loved ones but the fallen is generally not directly discussed anymore, especially if they have chosen to leave. Some fallen do decide to remain in their life. They are typically given a wide berth and treated with a hesitation, but are not refused services. Most commonly, these fallen aasimar that choose to remain find that the non-aasimar humanoids are the individuals that treat them with the least amount of difference. ------ A Solar has the power to declare any fallen aasimar forgiven/redeemed and allowed into heaven/paradise. This doesn't really ever happen though. The Solars have always been at war with the Yaun-ti to the south. The current war is different though in that the Solars have decreed that any fallen aasimar who takes up arms to fight and die in this war against the Yaun-ti this time, will be given entrance to Mount Celestia. This is a big deal, and a great many fallen aasimar have answered the call, even though they are not military trained.